
The family members sustained minor burns, but managed to
break out to safety before their house was reduced to rubble.
The incident happened on Sunday. When Southern Eye visited
the family at Ndimankule village under Chief Shana on Monday, their family’s
multi-purpose hut had been razed to the ground.
Narrating the ordeal, a distraught single mother of three,
Judith Hadebe (60) said she was in deep sleep when she started feeling hot and
as she opened her eyes she noticed that her thatched roof was in flames.
“I then bolted out of the bed and rushed to the door. I was
trembling with fear and that is when I woke up my grandchildren, who are in
Grades One, Two, Three and Form One and Three together with my 86-year-old
mother. I secure the door with a shovel when we sleep, so when I tried to open
it, it was secured from outside and didn’t budge an inch and that is when I
realised that we were going to die,” she said.
“I picked an object and broke down the door. My mother is
old and can hardly walk, so l had to help her out together with the children
but it was too late to retrieve our furniture and certificates, as the roof
collapsed just as we stepped out,” she said.
Asked if she suspected any foul play, Hadebe said: “We use
a solar light and we had switched it off. The person came at midnight and
police took a wire and the person’s fingerprints. I live in harmony with my
villagemates, only last week on Monday, my child, who stays in Victoria Falls
was engaged in a fist and knife fight with a group of men, whom he confronted
for bullying his Form Three brother over a girl.
“The fight turned nasty and we spoke about it as families,
but they vowed to come back and revenge, I urge the police to start their
investigation from there,” she said
Hadebe’s son, identified as Brat, said he was not at home
when the inferno began, but suspected that his rivals were behind the arson.
Brat had a fresh knife scar below his left eye and said the
matter was not reported to the police and had not sought medical attention.
The family lost identification documents, sofas, bed,
kitchen utensils, school and church uniforms, stationery, groceries and sewing
machines among other valuables and they sustained minor burns. Newsday
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